Writing Jerusalem Blake didn't believe that it stemmed from his imagination; he thought instead that he was simply taking dictation from the Source; he used a variety of styles.
On Plate 3 of Jerusalem Blake wrote:
"When this Verse was first dictated to me I consider'd a Monotonous Cadence like that used by Milton & Shakspeare & all writers of English Blank Verse, derived from the modern bondage of Rhyming; to be a necessary and indispensible part of Verse. But I soon found that in the mouth of a true Orator such monotony was not only awkward, but as much a bondage as rhyme itself. I therefore have produced a variety in every line, both of cadences & number of syllables. Every word and every letter is studied and put into its fit place: the terrific numbers are reserved for the terrific parts—the mild & gentle, for the mild & gentle parts, and the prosaic, for inferior parts: all are necessary to each other Poetry Fetter'd, Fetters the Human Race! Nations are Destroy'd, or Flourish, in proportion as Their Poetry Painting and Music, are Destroy'd or Flourish! The Primeval State of Man, was Wisdom, Art, and Science."
Blake thought he was a prophet with an urgent message to the world.
In his Book of Milton he wrote:"Terrific among the Sons of Albion in chorus solemn & loud
A Bard broke forth! all sat attentive to the awful man.Mark well my words! they are of your eternal salvation."
In one of the Illustrations of Jerusalem (Plate 41) is
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| Plate 41 of Jerusalem |
The scroll beside the fearful giant contains these famous words:
"EACH Man is in his Spectre’s power
Until the arrival of that hour,
When his Humanity awake,
And cast his Spectre into the Lake."
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